Jayden

“Damn it!” I shouted in frustration, slamming my fist onto the small breakfast table in the kitchen. The plates and silverware rattled, and Joe looked up from his newspaper, all of which I ignored. Just when I had thought Sera was beginning to recover, she has a panic attack. You’re probably the one who brought it on, my mind sneered. I felt helpless. There wasn’t anything I could do for Sera. The things she’s been through are too far out of my understanding. Psychology was never my favorite subject.

I closed my eyes and let the memories play; our moment of nervous connection cut short when she pulled away from my touch. I had looked away to let her get dressed in private, only to find her swaying and falling to the ground, despite her desperate grip on the dresser. Damn it. What could I have done? I couldn’t touch her, ever again. Not if it meant making her relive what that man did to her. I had to push these feelings down, as far away as possible. She was in no condition to be dealing with some idiot falling for her.

But what if she was falling too? I shook my head violently. If Sera felt the same way about me as I did for her, I would let her make the first move. When she was ready.

“Idiot,” I grumbled to myself.

“Berating yourself again, sir?” Joe asked from across the table. I said nothing. “Are you sure you don’t want to send for a doctor?”

“I’m sure. A doctor would need to ask too many questions in order to help her. We can’t risk information getting out about what happened in Marxus.”

“I think this is beyond our scope of expertise though, sir.”

“Of course it is, but there isn’t anything that can be done. We need to focus on breaking Claire out right now,” I said, grudgingly tearing my thoughts away from the tortured Seraphine.

“Ah, yes. Speaking of Miss Claire, I think this article might be interesting to you.” Joe slid his newspaper over to me, pointing to a small article in the center folds of the paper. I quickly scanned the short article, my eyebrows raising as I finished it. It was about a small envoy that had arrived early this morning, staying at the inn closest to City Hall.

“You think this might be the witness Smoke said was coming from Rune?” I asked. Joe nodded. I had told him everything that had transpired behind the two thick doors of the holding cell room.

“If they arrived this morning and went straight to their inn, it’s likely they didn’t go to City Hall as soon as they got here.” I glanced up at the clock in the kitchen. It was still in the early hours of operation--Detective Smoke had probably only been at work for an hour, if that. “It would be best to go in at night, when City Hall isn’t as heavily guarded. Assuming the witness has already identified her or will soon, they probably won’t start her hearing until tomorrow morning at the earliest, even with a high profile case like this one. They might spend the rest of the day questioning her about the Elementorium’s location, but she should still be in holding tonight.”

“So tonight is our best bet,” a feminine voice came from over my shoulder. I turned to see Seraphine idling in the archway between the kitchen and sitting room. Her face was still drained of color, and she was holding on to the archway for support. I forced my thoughts away from her weakened state and returned to the task at hand.

“That is assuming we survive the day without guards showing up at the door. If Claire breaks and tells them the location of the Elementorium--”

“She won’t,” Sera said simply, interrupting me. “They interrogated her all day yesterday, but she didn’t say a word. Didn’t even tell them her name, though I’m sure they’ll know that once they’ve talked to the witness.”

“Yeah, they probably will. It’s safe to assume that the witness from Rune is Claire’s brother, the rightful bearer of the Elementorium.” As I said this, part of me wondered if Claire would give them our location once her brother was involved. She clearly didn’t think he should be the Elementorium’s bearer, but I had gotten the impression that she felt guilty about stealing it.

“Joe, I want you to go talk to your contacts in the city guard and get word to us immediately if anyone is going to make a move on the house.” Joe nodded, setting his newspaper down and sparing a final glance at Sera and I before leaving.

“So we’re going tonight. What’s the plan once we get there?” Sera asked, still clutching the archway.

“That’s what we need to figure out next. Come on,” I said, standing up and offering her my hand for stability. She took it and we relocated to the library, where I sat her down in the chair she had previously occupied. I quickly located the book I wanted, setting it on the table and opening it to the center pages. Inside was a folded blueprint of City Hall, which we pored over for the next couple hours as we devised our entrance and escape routes.

The lunch hour passed without word from Joe, which in this case meant good news. After Sera and I had exhausted the blueprints of City Hall and had eaten a light lunch, she was looking much more like herself again. The color had returned to her cheeks, though there was little color to start with, and she seemed to have recovered from her earlier panic attack.

“What are you staring at?” Sera asked, watching me as she stretched her arms and back in her dining chair. I couldn’t help but be surprised that she hadn’t simply read my mind in order to know what I was thinking.

“Just wondering if you’re feeling better,” I answered honestly. She returned her hands to her lap and looked down for a moment, pondering.

“Yeah, I feel mostly back to normal I suppose.”

“Feel up for a bit of training?” I asked, unable to hide the excitement from my voice. I had read a lot of material on the three moon’s powers and how to use them, and was eager to put that knowledge to the test. Sera raised an eyebrow and the corners of her mouth resisted a smile, which I took for a yes. “Come on,” I said, leading her out the back door of the house into a large, secluded clearing.

“This reminds me of the meadow in Marxus,” Sera said, her eyes scanning the clearing. Though she was turned away from me, I thought I saw a smile on her face.

“The place where we met?”

Sera nodded and looked up, her chest visibly rising and falling with a long breath. I watched her for a moment, a smile finding its way to me. She looked at peace here, surrounded by trees and bathing in the sunlight.

“What training with your powers did you get in Marxus?” I asked, pulling her attention back to training.

“Nothing. Maya--the woman in charge of my daily lessons--always said that she couldn’t teach me anything until my powers had unlocked.”

I scoffed. “Well, that’s helpful of her.”

“So master,” she said, turning to me, “where do our lessons begin?” I couldn’t help but smirk at her calling me “master”.

“Well, as I’m sure you already know, the wildlife and forests all over the continent are from Elysium’s power. Ever since you were born, you’ve been passively providing a small amount of that power to the ecosystem--just enough to keep everything stable. Now that you’ve come into your powers, that passive power should be largely increased.”

“I do know that much, and that Elysium’s power is what mutated that monster into the beast it is today--or was,” she said, a hint of anger tainting her voice. She was talking about the Tamani, a creature that had been mutated by the power of Elysium steadily over the years until it became an unkillable, murderous machine.

“You killed that beast though, Sera. None of the previous Elysium bearers have been able to do that, even when it was first discovered.” She seemed to acknowledge this fact, though it surely brought back bad memories. “In any case,” I continued, “Elysium’s power is largely connected to the life force of the planet--be it in plants, animals, or humans. In theory, you should be able to take anything that supports life, such as a seed, and manipulate the process.”

“In theory? You don’t sound too sure, master,” she said, grinning at me. I nervously ran my hand through my hair. She had a point, after all.

“The Marx family has always been fairly tight-lipped about their powers, Sera. Books about Elysium’s powers are mostly theories based on the visible impact they have on the planet and what eyewitnesses have seen. The Marx bloodline and the group that is sworn to guide them, the one Maya came from, are the only ones who know everything about Elysium’s power. That doesn’t mean we can’t figure some things out, though.”

Sera remained silent for a moment, seeming to take in everything I had said. Eventually she spoke; “I guess I could always ask Elysium…” her quiet voice faded to nothing.

“What do you mean, ‘ask Elysium’?”

“I’ve had a few conversations with her--the embodiment of Elysium, that is. That’s how I unlocked my powers when the Tamani attacked.” Her voice was a whisper, as though she wasn’t sure she wanted to share this secret. My mind, however, was spinning.

Nobody had ever claimed to make contact with the personification of their powers, though many had tried. Meditation was a regular practice for the Uniflux and Elementorium bearers in order to form a spiritual connection with their trinkets, but nothing tangible had ever come from it. I looked down at the outline of the Uniflux in my wrist, wondering if Usarium was somewhere I could reach.

“Today probably isn’t the best time for that, though,” Seraphine said, breaking my train of thought. “What training did you have in mind?”

“Well I was thinking about your mind-reading abilities,” I began, still distracted by Sera’s earlier revelation. “I don’t know if previous Elysium bearers had that ability, but they were rumoured to be able to control just about anything with a life force. Have you ever felt anything like that before?”

“Yes. If I focus on it, I can feel the life of everything around me. I could hear your heartbeat this morning, too.” I blinked twice before regaining focus.

“This is mostly just a theory, but I think for you to control something you have to first get into their head. When you command them to do something, you’ll have to overpower their will, though.” I paused, waiting for Sera to say something. After a moment of silence I continued on, saying, “So I figured you could try it out on me today. I’ll do my best not to resist, so go ahead.”

Seraphine’s turquoise eyes searched mine for a moment before closing. Immediately I heard her voice in my mind, but it wasn’t like before. She wasn’t simply a bystander in my consciousness; she was trying to take over. As promised, I did my best to relax and allow her to take control. It was far more difficult than I had anticipated, though, as every fiber of my being seemed to be trying to resist her.

“Step forward,” her voice echoed in my mind, instantly clearing it. I was aware of my body moving forward, though I hadn’t willed it to do so. I watched as I closed the gap between Sera and I, and felt my heart rate increase as we were practically nose to nose. Still not having received another command, I waited, motionless. After a moment, Sera exhaled and wrapped her arms around me. All at once, her control over my mind dissipated and I immediately reciprocated, holding her close.

Why was she letting me do this? Why, after everything I had put her through this morning, did she want to be close to me?

“I don’t know, Jayden,” she responded to my silent question.

“I don’t want to hurt you again.”

“You're not the one who hurt me.” She pulled away, her hands resting on my shoulders as she met my eyes. “You make me feel safe. I can’t change what happened to me, but I’m not sure that I should be running from it either. I don’t know what to do, there’s too much in my head…”

I moved a hand up to her head and pulled her close again. I wanted desperately to make her pain go away, but I didn’t know how. Hatred for a faceless man filled me and I clenched my jaw.

“I wish it was already dark, then we could just go save Claire,” Sera said, looking up at me. “One less thing on my mind, that way.” Finally, something I could do for her.

“Here,” I said, extending my hand. The Uniflux seemed to wake up, and began glowing in anticipation. Sera took my hand, her slender fingers curling around my palm. I closed my eyes and opened myself--us to the passing of time. Concentrating on the moment when we had planned to leave for City Hall, I allowed time to spin around us.